The Twilight 25 – Round 2
by daisy3853
Summary: A collection of drabbles and one shots written for Winter 2010 of the Twilight 25 on Livejournal. Various POVs, pairings, ratings, universes, and genres will be featured.
1. Restraint

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns the **_**Twilight**_** series. I'm just playing around.**

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****The Twilight Twenty-Five**

Prompt: Restraint

Pen name: daisy3853

Pairing: Edward/Bella

Rating: T

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**Restraint**

I lean in closer, inhaling deeply. It's as though I've never smelled before now, before _her_.

Every time.

My nose trails over the delicate skin of her neck, and she shudders at my touch.

Her heartbeats echo in my ears; I'm deaf to all else.

Either in fear or anticipation, adrenaline seeps in and taints her blood, intensifying the sweetness.

Venom coats my throat, blazing a path over frozen flesh. I imagine hell feels quite like this.

I close the distance, parting my lips just enough. Lips meet skin softly, sweetly. My tongue hazards a careful taste.

I smile.

_Enough._

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**This begins my collection of entries for the Twilight 25. It'll feature mostly drabbles (exactly 100 words each) with several one shots mixed in. I'm looking forward to playing around with different characters in both AU and AH. Thanks for reading!**

**Thank you as always to justaskalice for giving the thumbs up. :)**

**Finally, the**** the Indie Twific Awards are now open for nominations! Noms close January 28 at midnight EST. Please take a minute to head over and nominate your favorite indie stories at: www(dot)theindietwificawards(dot)com**


	2. Patience

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns the **_**Twilight**_** series. I'm just playing around.**

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**The Twilight Twenty-Five**

Prompt: Patience

Pen name: daisy3853

Pairing: Jasper

Rating: K+

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**Patience**

I see her every day.

The first time I saw her, I didn't think she'd even looked at me. I watched her for thirty-seven seconds.

On the sixth day, she smiled at me for the first time.

On the eleventh, I smiled back.

On the seventeenth, I waved shyly.

On the twenty-ninth, I sneezed when I opened my mouth to say "Hello." She giggled; I ran.

Today, the forty-first day, I stop in front of her for fifty-six seconds before I say, "Hello, my name's Jasper."

She smiles.

"I guess forty-one's my lucky number, Jasper."

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**Thanks for reading! **

**It could **_**technically**_** be Jasper/anyone… but if you know me, you know who I picture. ;)**

**Thank you to justaskalice and staceygirl aka jackbauer for reading it.**


	3. Bitter

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns the **_**Twilight**_** series. I'm just playing around.**

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**The Twilight Twenty-Five**

Prompt: Bitter

Pen name: daisy3853

Pairing: Rosalie

Rating: T

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**Bitter**

It was a bitter pill to swallow.

My life was all promises and hopes and dreams: roses and violets, wedding dresses, and beautiful people dancing at even more beautiful parties.

Beauty gave way to terror one cold April night. At the hands of my supposed prince, I was ruined. He and his men took by force what I would have one day given him freely, and then they kept taking. My body, my life, my beauty. My everything.

I drifted to sleep in pain – what I thought was the worst pain of my entire life. I was battered, broken, and left for dead, and I felt as if I'd never be whole again. I watched helplessly as my petty dreams seeped out with my blood, staining the pavement crimson as all of it flowed beyond my reach. Snow began to fall around me, and I watched it flutter softly to the ground. I was jealous of each perfect flake for being lovely while my own beauty was dying.

My body grew gradually colder, until the chill of my skin matched the pavement beneath it. My vision blurred beyond just my tears as the darkness sunk in around me. It enveloped me and somehow soothed me, despite the unrelenting pain.

I lay in the street, waiting patiently for death to come and claim me. When my frozen skin touched something even more glacial, I thought that it had. An angel had come for me. He carried me away, so fast I could feel the icy wind beating against my cheeks and tugging my hair. The pain never subsided, but I was flying to a better place; I was sure of it.

The angel brought me into the light and held me as my pain slowly gave way to peace.

Suddenly, the pain returned tenfold. I awoke, not to the welcoming embrace of heaven, but to the searing flames of hell. The fire engulfed me, swallowing my pain and making it burn infinitely hotter. It crept over every inch of my skin and charred me alive. This pain was one far more terrible than I had ever imagined could exist. I prayed for an end to my misery. I wanted peace. I called out for it, begging for mercy again and again until my throat was too raw to continue.

Again I was refused.

Instead I awoke once more, to a new kind of life and yet another fire. This one scorched my throat and tortured whatever had remained of my tattered soul. My beauty had been my downfall and my curse, and I was haunted by the loss of the simpler life I could have led.

So I battled the only demons I could control.

I fought my nature, as the angel insisted. He showed me his life and his purpose. He trusted me with his secrets and promised to honor mine. He brought me into his life and into their home, but I could hardly feel a part of their family.

I despised the boy as he despised me. No man had ever dared to deny my beauty. I wanted him to want me. I was desperate for someone to admire me. I needed him to make me feel like myself again. I needed to feel alive.

I watched his distaste melt into irritation and then detachment. His eyes fell on me with casual indifference and sometimes pity, but never desire. Every time he failed me_,_ I hated him just a little more. A small bit of compassion might have helped me forget the monster I'd become.

I could never forget the monsters who ended me.

I came for them one by one, hunting them with the same level of ruthlessness that they had afforded me. If I'd still had a heart that could beat, its angry staccato would have betrayed my weakness. If I'd needed my lungs, I would have been frightened and lightheaded and unable to breathe. As it was, my life after death had dissolved my weaknesses, rendering me lethal and terrible. For the first time since my new awakening, my strengths were strengths and not something I resented.

I killed the first few men rather quickly. They weren't expecting me, and at first they didn't register that they should fear me. I saw their expressions change from awe at my frightening beauty, to terror as they pled for their lives, and finally to _nothing_. I watched as their eyes filled with emptiness and then I tossed them aside.

I planned his demise with the same care as I had planned our storybook wedding, right down to my chosen attire. I made a sick and twisted game of this: the last game I would play, the last life I would end. I relished in the theatrics of the hunt, dragging it out until I was certain he knew his fate.

When I finally came for my fallen prince, he was waiting for me. He hid behind his guards and lock and key; he had no idea how futile his precautions would be. I could smell his fear beyond the stench of his captivity, and I heard his heart racing for me. He begged for his life and for forgiveness, but his feeble pleas fell on deaf ears. My heart was frozen solid in my chest, and that was his fault. He'd stolen it, crushed it, and left it for dead, right alongside the rest of me. He would reap his reward.

His screams of pain and misery did nothing to sway my resolve. I took my time, savoring the agony he was now suffering at _my _hands. Pain for pain, tit for tat, his life for my life. He had taken my dreams, my virtue, and my future from me. I took everything back that I could, but it still wasn't enough.

I held my breath as I ended every last one of those men. I let my throat burn painfully dry, aching all the more at the scent of all the wasted blood before me. The venom flowed suggestively, but I ignored its call. I watched the life drain from their eyes without ever spilling a drop.

Because to taste their filthy blood as it crossed my lips would have been the most bitter pill of all.

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**Thank you for reading. **

**Love always to justaskalice for beta'ing and telling me I don't suck. :)**


	4. Bound

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns the **_**Twilight**_** series. I'm just playing around.**

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****The Twilight Twenty-Five**

Prompt: Bound

Pen name: daisy3853

Pairing: Edward/Bella

Rating: T

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**Bound**

I know my path before I hang up the phone. As if I ever had a choice.

She thought I was being dramatic, irrational even. Her fickle Romeo.

She always failed to grasp how tightly I'm bound. That she lived and died in doubt destroys me.

Her warm lips to my ice. Her vital heart against my silent chest. Her thundering pulse beneath my deathly touch.

Gone.

The absence of her engulfs me, suffocates me.

She jumped, and now I must follow.

I have no right to hope for a sweet reunion in death, but perhaps in its absence, peace.

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**Thanks to justaskalice for the quick pre-read. :)**

**The final list of nominations for the Indies is up! There are some fantastic stories in there. Please to be reading now, and be ready to vote starting on February 20****th!**

**www (dot) theindietwificawards (dot) com/ValidatedStoriesByCategories (dot) aspx**


	5. Honest

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns the **_**Twilight**_** series. I'm just playing around.**

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The Twilight Twenty-Five**

Prompt: Honest

Pen name: daisy3853

Pairing: Emmett/Rosalie

Rating: T

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**Honest**

Her constant need for admiration might threaten a less secure man. I know the only eyes she wants are mine.

A less patient man might be frustrated when she storms away in anger. I know exactly how long to wait before I follow.

Her stubborn nature might intimidate a weaker man. I love watching her stand up for herself.

None of the bullshit matters because when I hold her in my arms – when she tells me that she loves me – I know it's the God's honest truth. No pretenses or misunderstandings. Just her.

And that's more than enough for me.

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**Thanks you staceygirl aka jackbauer for the beta. :)**


	6. Alone

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns the **_**Twilight**_** series. I'm just playing around.

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**The Twilight Twenty-Five**

Prompt: Alone

Pen name: daisy3853

Pairing: Esme

Rating: T

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**Alone **

I stand at the precipice, awaiting the courage to force myself into action.

Behind me, there is nothing.

My arms cradle my still-swollen womb, now as dead and empty as my heart. The life which grew within flickered out, and with it my will to live. I miss the feel of his soft skin against mine. I retch at the memory of the icy stillness that slowly overtook his tiny body.

My emptiness threatens to swallow me, and I allow it. I take a leap of faith, a silent prayer on my lips that I find company in death.

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**Thanks to justaskalice for reading this. :)**

**Voting for the Indies opened today! Have you started reading? Are you ready to pick your favorites? I certainly hope so. Voting closes March 2 at midnight!**

**http : // theindietwificawards (dot) com/vote (dot) aspx**


	7. Red

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns the **_**Twilight**_** series. I'm just playing around.

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**

**The Twilight Twenty-Five**

Prompt: Red

Pen name: daisy3853

Pairing: Edward

Rating: T

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**Red**

_Not her._

Arms of steel hold me captive as the fruitless screeching of tires on ice echoes in my ears. I hear the sickening crunch of bones splintering and metal scraping metal.

_Not her._

Her scent engulfs me as her blood drips, trickling away. The venom scorches my throat in response, begging for sweet relief.

_Not her._

I watch her blood pool and puddle, moving in velvety crimson rivulets down the crushed car fenders and over the asphalt, away from her sluggish heart.

_Not her._

I wrench myself free, my bloodless veins pounding, my vision tinged with red.

_Not her._

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**A little Twilight AU. Thanks for reading. :)**


	8. Earnest

**The Twilight Twenty-Five**

**Prompt**: Earnest

**Pen name:** daisy3853

**Pairing**: Alice

**Rating:** K+

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**Earnest **

_Edward, please._

"Don't even think about it."

_I promise to be on my best behavior. I can play it cool._

He didn't respond. Rolling his eyes was apparently condescending enough.

_You know I've seen it._

"And she knows nothing about any of this," he hissed. "She's barely comfortable speaking to me, and you want to – what? Have her over for a slumber party? Please just give it time."

_Always so serious._

"I heard that."

_I know._

"Alice, listen. I know you're excited. Just – not yet."

I smiled beatifically, again showing him the vision of Bella as my best friend.

_Soon._

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**Thank you to Oscar519 for reading this at 2 am for me. :)**_  
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